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My Review:Title: Here
Author: D.G. Swank
Series: On the Otherside #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: November 7, 2011
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 358
Genres: Young Adult, Alternative History, Science Fiction
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 3
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:Denise Grover Swank writing as D.G. Swank.
Sixteen-year-old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.
Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months.
When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.
INCLUDES the short story "Once in a Lifetime."
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
3.5 stars — OK, that was actually pretty entertaining! I had some problems here and there with the science and concept, but if I just let go of that crap, it was easy to get sucked into the story. With the prologue at the beginning, I was able to easily guess what the secret was, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. I honestly didn’t expect the book to be split into two halves like it was, so it was fun to see more of the story than I was expecting (trying to avoid spoilers here). I’m totally not big on love triangles, so I have a feeling that’s going to be hard to bear, but I’m eminently curious about where this will go in the next book.
ON REREAD:
3.5 stars — A pretty standard early indie YA. It was hard waiting for that shoe to drop, even though I knew from my original read that we’d actually get time once the one big reveal happened.
The characters are okay, though none of them really have me super excited. Julia is struggling with an immense amount of guilt and grief. She definitely has a lot of teenager-isms that make her realistic, but somewhat frustrating. Some of the decisions she makes make me want to shake my head. I feel for her in some areas, and I actually appreciate that the author tried to inject some sanity into her decisions on occasion (like making her question her own instincts and choices).
As for the boys? I’m not exactly excited about either. Evan is clingy and obsessive and over the top. Reece is a bit volatile. Both of them have moments of being dicks, but I guess no more or less than Julia.
Given that we do get a lot of time in the second “part”, I can’t help but feel like I don’t know the purpose of the drawn out first section. I suppose to establish what she’s been through, and make a connection with the boys?
I’m still curious to see where this goes! Finally, I’m going to find out!
My Review:Title: There
Author: D.G. Swank
Series: On the Otherside #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 19, 2012
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 410
Genres: Young Adult, Alternative History, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Bookish Resolutions DTTH, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 3, Lenoreo's 2023 Finishing the Series Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:Denise Grover Swank writing as D.G. Swank.
Julia Phillips’ world is an alternate universe away.
Trapped in a land where government leaders want her dead, Julia is forced to run for her life with Evan and Reece, the two boys who brought her here. They’re on their own in a hostile landscape ruled by scavengers and thieves.
But Evan is battling a deadly infection, and Julia finds herself racing against time as she tries to find the medicine that will save his life. She and Reece find an unlikely ally—Jo, a girl they free after finding her captured by bandits.
As the four travel across the country, Julia has something else to worry about—her memories are slowly being replaced by the Julia of Evan and Reece’s world. Will they find a way to send Julia home before it’s too late? Or will Julia’s body and mind be trapped there?
2.5 stars — Well. I was right in my original review of the first book, that love triangle did not work for me. There was a bit of an explanation for it, but it went on too long, and really didn’t make anyone but Evan and Jo likeable in that situation.
So yeah. I have to admit I’m kind of disappointed. I still don’t really like any of the characters. Evan got better in this one, definitely. Became more dimensional, and I actually kind of believed in his feelings for this Julia. I basically never liked Reece, and felt like he was volatile, a bit of a bully, and just not someone remotely swoonworthy. And while I know I’m supposed to be team one or the other, the truth is that while I like Evan more, I think he deserved better than Julia. Why did she love him? Because he made her feel safe? That’s not enough. That’s seriously selfish.
Julia was a great big mixed bag. She would have some good moments where she showed her empathy and humanity, but something felt meh about it…like it was the bare minimum, but compared to people in a world that have lost all of their empathy, it looked amazing. *shrugs* I don’t know, she just really rubbed me the wrong way.
The one bright spot was the introduction of Jo. I loved seeing the friendship develop with Julia, though even there I felt like I wanted more. It’s because the author decided we had to keep being suspicious of her, so it wasn’t as fulfilling as it could have been.
I feel like there were quite a few potential plot threads and mysteries that just got completely dropped. Maybe Ms. Swank had a different vision for this series initially, and changed her mind, but it was kind of annoying for me. Like Reece in the first book calling her Newbie? And in this book his Mom harps on Julia about “is she sure he didn’t cross over?” What about Deacon, and the radiation thing in KC? What about the fact that they can make more boxes? What even was the point of the Rebels or the UR? What was their goal? What was Reece’s Mom’s motivations? Basically it was a shallow world, with shallow villains for me. Not to mention Monica ended up being a nothing character.
Sorry. I’m PMSing, and so I’m crankier than usual. It wasn’t horrible, but I could just see all these things that could have been better, and they just weren’t…and apparently that bothers me. *rolls eyes*
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